Zhang Cigong Again

The journey from Ba County to Jiangxia by water takes at least fifteen days, and the group has been traveling by boat for sixteen days. They have not yet arrived in Jiangxia, but they are not too far from the city.

But this was a distance that Zhang Xuezhou and his group found difficult to reach.

The caravan was reduced from eleven to eight people, and someone brought a corpse back to Shu County, leaving the caravan with only seven people.

Now, only four people remain in the entire merchant group.

Zhang Xuezhou, Dong Zhongshu, Zhao Liang, and groom Zhang Bayang.

Zhang Xuezhou is physically fine now, but he will inevitably lose control of his body tomorrow.

Dong Zhongshu seems to have suffered significant consequences from forcibly attempting to break through to the Sole Self Realm, and fell into a coma after his blood reversed and his heart was attacked.

As for Zhao Liang and Zhang Bayang, they were both injured. After being treated by Zhang Xuezhou's Supreme Purity True Technique, their injuries were stabilized, but one was physically weak and the other had lost too much blood.

"We need to find a place to properly adjust!"

Zhang Xuezhou felt that this journey was no less dangerous than his previous long treks.

Given their current condition, this group has no chance of making any significant progress, whether they take a side path or a main road.

"We... we..."

For a moment, Zhao Liang did consider giving up his trip north.

Without leaving Shu County, he was the county commandant of that small territory, able to command nearly twenty skilled fighters. In Shu County, he was someone who had both prestige and status.

Once outside Shu County, Zhao Liang realized his own insignificance.

Whether he is healthy or not, this comparison makes no difference.

During their ongoing journey, the various situations they encountered were clearly beyond Zhao Liang's ability to handle.

Zhao Liang felt he wouldn't be able to get through anything like this, even just once.

Looking at the bodies that had to be hastily buried on the riverbank, he felt that he himself might one day be buried in the same way.

Compared to that tragic end, staying in Shu County and slowly enjoying the scenery of life might not be too bad. Even if the intertwining of his Law Power made him unable to use his strength, or even if it shortened his lifespan by one or two decades, it was still better than dying on the journey.

This was vastly different from what Zhao Liang had imagined—traveling thousands of miles by horse-drawn carriage to seek medical treatment.

Now, there isn't a single normal person in their team.

"What, you want to go back to Shu County?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"Just a tiny bit!"

Zhao Liang nodded, then pointed to the waterway they had come by.

"But I know I can't go back!"

After nearly two months of travel, without the ability to ride horses, the return journey would undoubtedly take even longer.

Zhao Liang also lacks the ability to travel alone.

He now needs to band together and, more importantly, leverage the strengths of each member of the team.

Only by going all in and risking everything can he find his true chance of survival.

"Zhang Bayang and I will stay with you for the next few days until you recover completely before we set off," Zhao Liang said.

"I've surveyed the area within a radius of about ten miles. There's a rather secluded spot over this hillside. If we stay there for a few days, we should be able to reach Jiangxia City by rafting downhill!"

The large ship was destroyed, and the carriages and horses were also submerged in the river. Only some cloth, silk, salt, and valuables that had been carried by the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect remained on the bamboo raft.

Zhang Xuezhou locked the bamboo raft and threw some supplies back onto the riverbank.

The merchant guild is now practically defunct, and Zhang Xuezhou feels that everyone can only be peddlers carrying loads on their shoulders.

Having lived like a wild man for so long, he didn't care too much about such things.

"The Beast Taming Sect has set up the Dragon Gate Formation in this area; could they be nearby...?"

"Don't worry about those remnants!"

Zhang Xuezhou waved his hand.

Dong Zhongshu killed Su Fang with a single blow and slaughtered more than ten disciples of the Beast Taming Sect with a wave of his hand. The remaining disciples of the Beast Taming Sect who fled in the river were no match for him.

Compared to actively seeking trouble, Zhang Xuezhou felt that these Beast Taming Sect disciples were more afraid of them causing trouble, and would therefore stay far away, quickly abandoning any territory nearby.

"Our most important task right now is to bring Master Dong to his senses!"

Zhang Xuezhou pointed to Dong Zhongshu, whose body was weak and hot, and thought that Dong Zhongshu was likely experiencing some aftereffects from breaking through to a higher realm.

But he had never heard of anyone dying from the aftereffects of breaking through a realm.

This made him feel that Dong Zhongshu could still be saved, and he even believed that Dong Zhongshu could recover his physical functions through gradual rest.

Compared to his previous alliance with Dong Zhongshu, he now has the help of Zhao Liang and the groom Zhang Bayang, making the situation better than he had imagined.

If Dong Zhongshu hadn't regained consciousness in the last two days, he wouldn't have starved to death in the following days.

The group of several people traversed the riverbank and passed through the mountain forests until they turned into a valley on a hillside, where Zhang Xuezhou finally stopped.

Although he was an unqualified hunter, Zhang Xuezhou felt that this terrain offered little chance of encountering wild beasts and provided some cover, making it a good place for hunters to spend the night temporarily.

He laid a roll of cloth on the ground as a place to stand, and then placed Dong Zhongshu on it.

After gathering some firewood and starting a fire, the group roasted dried meat and other provisions to fill their stomachs and regain their strength.

Zhang Xuezhou studied the unconscious Dong Zhongshu for a while, and only after the Supreme Purity True Technique had no effect did he wave to the crowd and go to patrol the surrounding area.

Although Zhang Xuezhou was carefree and claimed to care nothing about the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect, he was not lacking in a mindset of preventing problems before they arose.

If a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect were to send his beasts to bite them in the middle of the night, they would surely be in deep trouble.

He emerged from the valley, feathers protruding from his arms, and then leaped into the air, his entire body rapidly taking flight.

After crossing the mountains and forests, and then traversing another mountain, a village that was just beginning to take shape suddenly came into view.

Compared to the valley, the terrain here is undoubtedly excellent. If one were to use feng shui techniques to explore it, one might even be able to discover a feng shui-favorable burial site.

The village was still filled with the clanging and banging sounds of several thin figures sawing and building wooden houses.

The builders' uniformly tattered clothing allowed Zhang Xuezhou to instantly recognize that this was a newly established mountain gate belonging to the Beast Taming Sect.

Although Zhang Xuezhou's reconnaissance was relatively late, by the time he flew over here, several disciples of the Beast Taming Sect who had escaped from the river had just managed to return to the village.

These people fled in panic, then rushed into the village in a frantic frenzy.

Zhang Xuezhou watched from the air for several seconds until someone called for the hunting dogs to fight among their own sect members. Only then did he realize that Su Fang, the leader of the Beast Taming Sect, had been lost, and the group below had begun to split up and flee for their lives.

This allowed Zhang Xuezhou to remain suspended in the air, waiting for things to settle down.

The struggle lasted only a moment before the disciples who were building the structure put down their work and joined in the fray.

No one dared to joke about such a thing, and when it really came down to it, everyone knew it meant splitting up and escaping for their lives.

Having been besieged by the imperial court before, these people are adept at doing this kind of thing.

Some knew they were not good enough and would run away after getting a little advantage; others fought hard to kill their fellow disciples to seek the greatest benefit; still others watched from afar, waiting to pick up the pieces later.

High in the air, Zhang Xuezhou took in all the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect.

"Hahaha, the Beast Taming Manual is mine! In ten years, when I have mastered its cultivation, I will surely lead the Beast Taming Sect to glory!"

In the end, after a bloody battle, a middle-aged man with five fingers severed, supported by a hunting dog, laughed wildly while holding a dragon-shaped jade stone in a pool of blood.

But his maniacal laughter quickly faded.

A short arrow, propelled by breath, struck his throat; the blackening of his neck clearly indicated that the arrow had been coated with poison.

He clutched his throat, staring in disbelief in the direction the arrow had come from.

After directing the hunting dogs to attack the other man, the middle-aged man sat down on the ground with wide eyes.

"It's like dogs fighting, a complete mess. How could a school of thought have fallen to this level!"

As Zhang Xuezhou descended from the sky in a spiral, he folded his wings.

He looked at the middle-aged man who was rolling on the ground in panic and couldn't help but shake his head.

Just moments before, the Beast Taming Sect still had a large number of members remaining, but in a short period of time, it was almost completely wiped out, leaving only a few weaker disciples who had left early.

Zhang Xuezhou was only conducting reconnaissance to confirm the camp's safety for the next few days.

But when the middle-aged man burst into wild laughter and shouts, Zhang Xuezhou also heard the transmission of the 'Beast Taming Manual' in the air.

He had no intention of cultivating the 'Beast Taming Manual', but considering that Zhang Shu and others in Shu County City lacked the corresponding Technique Method inheritance, Zhang Xuezhou felt that this kind of inheritance jade from a destroyed sect could definitely fetch a good price.

He stepped on the ground, walking step by step toward the middle-aged man.

"Mine, mine, all of this is mine, my Beast Taming Sect!"

The middle-aged man clutched his throat, letting out a sound of resentment.

He looked at the jade that had been forcibly taken from his hand and kept reaching out to grab Zhang Xuezhou.

That was a distance he could never reach, a distance that filled him with despair.

"Zhang Cigong, you little bastard, you caused the destruction of my Beast Taming Sect's lineage! I curse you to a terrible death in the afterlife..."

Amidst gritted teeth and Curse, the middle-aged man collapsed, his eyes wide, clutching his throat, his limbs twitching occasionally.

"Zhang Cigong?"

Upon hearing the familiar name, Zhang Xuezhou glanced once more at the young man wrestling and fighting with the hunting dogs.

A face covered in mud and blood came into Zhang Xuezhou's view, mixed with familiar faces from his memory.

Zhang Xuezhou!

As the Deer-Slaying Blade severed the dog's head, the young man on the ground quickly rolled to his feet and assumed a defensive stance, clearly recognizing Zhang Xuezhou, whom he hadn't seen for several years.